Managing People Bridging the Generation Essay

This is also in defiance of the usual job search and reward method -- instead of salary-driven, Millennials are fulfillment-driven.

Through these intergenerational pairings, companies hope to tap into this valuable, selfless idealistic pursuit of knowledge and social capital for its own sake, while not losing the work ethic and focus of older generations. The experiment at Randstad has been quite successful in many instances, although the degree to which the two personalities melded, it was reported, often varied between teams. Of course, a Baby Boomer might wryly observer that the fact that the degree to which the partners liked one another was so influential in the team's success might be seen as 'very Generation Y' Generation Y, the Google generation that spawned the search engine created by a company where work and play have almost no division at all at its corporate headquarters, wants to have fun at work, and to be friends with their bosses and colleagues. "To the older generations, there is still this dividing line, "When I am working I'm working. When I'm playing, I'm playing.' This generation doesn't see it that way" (Fenn 2009).

However, if over time these partnerships do genuinely grow more beneficial, and Boomers find themselves able to remain in the workforce longer as employees with relevant skills due to what they learn from their Gen Y partners, they may grow less resentful at the spirit manifested by their younger teammates.Ideally, work partnerships should function as teams and both employees must work together for the partnership to succeed. Today, selecting candidates for a position is never a zero-sum game, with winners and losers. A company in the new Gen Y-dominant world must always remember it is creating a work environment when it hires individuals and pairs them together.

References

Bridging the generation gap. (2007, September 1) BusinessWeek. 60-61. Retrieved February

18, 2010 at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_38/b4050063.htm

Fenn, Donna. (2009, September 30. Gen Y Entrepreneurs. Fast Company.

Retrieved February 18, 2010 at http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cali-yost/new-worklife-flex-normal/gen-y-entrepreneurs-transform-work-life-and-businessmdashint

Hamel, Gary. (2009, March 24). The Facebook generation vs. The Fortune 400. The Wall

Street Journal. Retrieved February 18, 2010 at http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs.-the-fortune-500/tab/article/l

Hart, Christine. (2008, Spring). Generation Y: Trailblazers or slackers? Cahoots Magazine.

http://www.cahootsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=337.....